BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 23 
other dwarf Palms, Epiphytal Orchidee, Fici trailing on the ground, 
some with long prostrate ramuli and entirely leafless, but producing a 
fine crop of ground-figs, greedily eaten by the Lepchas, and not very 
bad. The foliaceous branches are erect, very different and difficult to 
prove of the same plant, and bear sessile oblong leaves, singularly 
oblique at the base, very rough, and used for polishing. There are 
several species of this groupe; one grows at 6,000 feet.* 
The night was calm and moonlight, with blue sky and a little 
cirrhus, no dew or rain. A thermometer sunk two feet stood at 78° 
both this night and the following morning, which is, no doubt, the 
average bottom-heat required for plants from the bases of the Hima- 
laya, and 55° or 60° for those of Darjeeling. The temperature of 
the air at the base varies during the year, probably from 50° or 60° 
at the coldest, to 90° and 100°. At an elevation above 6,000 feet, the 
mean variations are much less, from 40° to 70°: any greater degree of 
cold would certainly kill most of the Darjeeling plants, if continued 
for a day or two, 
(To be continued.) 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
ToDDYMEN AND Toppy IMPLEMENTS. 
PLATES I. and II. 
Toddy, or Palm-wine, is extracted from several kinds of palms; 
perhaps from none more extensively than from the common cocoa-nut, = ; = 
Cocos nucifera,—a tree, of which M. de Tussac says, “ Il est difficile de — — 
refuser à cet arbre la prééminence pour la beauté sur beaucoup d'autres 
espèces du genre Palmier. Qu'on se figure une belle colonne de - 
soixante à quatre-vingts pieds d'élevation, dont le chapiteau est formé - 
de feuilles immenses, courbées également en différens sens, et formant - 
un panache dont toutes les parties s'agitent mollement par l'impulsion _ 
des vents. Les fleurs produisent assez peu d'effets, quoique en très- 
* One ome of this eminently tropical genus grows in Sikkim at A4 
9,000 feet T 
